One Lovely Blog Award

I was totally delighted when Sharon of Yellow Cat Designs nominated me for the ‘One Lovely Blog Award’. Have a look at Sharon’s blog and meet her beautiful cat, Bella.

The Rules:

• Thank the person who nominated you, and give a link to his/her blog.
• List the rules.
• Display the image of the award on your post.
• List seven facts about yourself.
• Nominate (up to) 15 bloggers for this award, and notify them.

1.    I have 109 roses in my garden, not all are different varieties. A lot are David Austin English roses and I definitely favour varying shades of pink. It would be hard to pick a favourite, but just on sheer numbers I would have to choose David Austin’s “Sharifa Asma”, it performs well and the fragrance is exceptional. Expect to see the odd rose turn up here from time to time.

2.    I am passionate about gardening and I have a sadly neglected garden blog, Yard Tales,  that I ran (note the past tense here, well, maybe) for two years. Garden blogging doesn’t yield anywhere near the same readership as a quilt blog. A popular non-professional (and non-edibles) garden blog will probably have a readership of 50. Without the community support we have, a garden blog relies on google searches for visits. After 2 years I have 5 followers and I know them all personally. I am extremely grateful for the strong on-line quilt community.

3.    Back in the late ‘80s when women’s body boarding was in its infancy my friend and I entered a body boarding contest to pick two people to be sent to Sydney to represent Western Australia. My friend entered because she wanted to go to Sydney, I entered because she wanted support. I came 5^th in the state, or that’s the spin one of my workmates puts on it. My friend was pretty keen and reasonably experienced; I was ill-equipped and had half-heartedly paddled around only a couple of times. To set the scene, the contest was held in a remote section of the beach with all the usual trappings (the marquee, the guy with the bullhorn, a loud hooter thing); it was winter and the surf was sloppy; and the lone spectator was my friend’s mother (unlike the above photo, taken last summer). I headed out into the water for my heat and lost one of my (secondhand and loose) flippers on the first wave. I looked for it for a while and giving up started heading back to the beach. One of the organisers started heading down to the water’s edge waving me to go back out. They needed me to stay in for the duration of the heat otherwise they wouldn’t have enough numbers to qualify as a contest, so I went back out and floundered around for another 20 minutes. There were 5 of us in the contest.

4.    The past is another land they say and the 80s were no exception. Back in the heyday of Reebok high-tops I was a full time gym and aerobics instructor. Nowadays I’m pretty much a slob in comparison.

5.    There’s always a goal attached to taking on a new interest and with the gym stuff it was entering a fitness figure body-building competition. When it was clear that stress injuries were going to finish my athletic career it was a case of now or never. The last couple of days in the lead-up to the contest were the most unhealthiest I have felt (beyond the hangovers of my youth and genuine illness). To get maximum muscle definition you have to dehydrate yourself and manipulate your diet, varying extremes of carbs and protein. I came somewhere in the middle of a pack of 13 this time.

6.    I love a good detective series on TV and I have only just discovered repeats of Poirot. Often the set designers feature Bauhaus style art which makes for a bonus!

7.    I am fascinated by snails, there’s no squishing them and moving on at my house. I love to watch them interact with each other after rain. I’m no David Attenborough but I have seen them mating and one laying its eggs in the sand. Did you know it takes 2 years for a snail to grow to maturity? And that their first original shell is added to as they grow? Also if their shells crack or partially fall off it will repair. Marvellous creatures.

Whew! Did you make it to the end?

My nominations for this award are, in alphabetical order

Anja at Anja Quilts

Fellow Perth quilter Carla at Granny Maud’s Girl

Fellow Miss-Bee Hivin mate and owner of the cutest dog in the world Heide at Heide’s Quilty Hugs

And Sharla at the tongue twisting  Thistle Thicket Studio